Chapter 16: Stop Pretending. Liu Ming: Am I playing the role of cannon fodder villain too well…

Despite his verbal protests about not wanting to be scammed, Young Master Liu had just saved his life. Yun Zhou didn’t hesitate. He reached out to support Liu Ming, asking with concern, “How are you? Where does it hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital right now?”

Liu Ming shook his head, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “I just overexerted myself a bit.”

He regulated his breathing for a moment, quickly regaining his rhythm. Standing tall once more, he pulled away from Yun Zhou’s supportive arm. After a moment of hesitation, he spoke up. “That… ‘Yun Zhou’ isn’t right. He is one hundred percent an Anomaly, and he’s already marked you.”

Yun Zhou nodded. The smile had faded from his face, and for the first time, that youthful, habitually cheerful expression took on a silent, sharp edge.

“Yeah, I noticed. Even though that guy was just a sliver of mental energy, he easily shattered my Mental Barrier and invaded my Mental Landscape. If it weren’t for you, I’m afraid I really would have died inside my own mind just now.”

Yun Zhou sighed, looking somewhat shaken. He spoke with genuine sincerity, his golden eyes sparkling as they fixed on Liu Ming, causing Liu Ming to shift his gaze away uncomfortably.

“Besides, that wasn’t the first time I’ve seen that guy… On the night I faced the Scorching Ghost, I had a dream. If it hadn’t been for that dream, I wouldn’t have been out on the streets in the middle of the night to be hunted by the Scorching Ghost in the first place.”

Yun Zhou rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, his silver-grey wolf ears twitching with the movement. Liu Ming sneered inwardly: No, you’re exactly the kind of person who would do something like that.

“…In that dream, I saw him too.”

Yun Zhou’s expression suddenly turned grave. His golden eyes, now devoid of warmth, looked straight at Liu Ming. “Did you dream that night too, Liu Ming?”

Swoosh!

Countless silver-blue threads shot out from beneath the observation deck, binding Yun Zhou’s limbs tightly and pinning him in place. Liu Ming seized the opportunity to leap back several steps, putting distance between them.

A single silver-blue thread hovered a few dozen centimeters behind Yun Zhou, poised to pierce his heart at any moment.

“Who exactly are you?”

Liu Ming narrowed his eyes. A small blue snake slithered along his collar and over his shoulder. Finding its perch, it raised its head haughtily, letting out a threatening hiss at the youth before them.

“Quick reactions, Young Master Liu.”

“Yun Zhou” smiled and clapped his hands.

Liu Ming’s lip twitched. Was it because he had been controlled by the Plot Strings for too long? Why did these people have absolutely no proper understanding of the Mental-type?

The moment “Yun Zhou’s” smile vanished, Liu Ming had gone on high alert. Simultaneously, he had felt a frigid chill erupt from his spine and crawl up to the nape of his neck. Yun Zhou’s golden eyes looked perfectly natural, showing no abnormal emotional fluctuations, but Liu Ming’s mental energy knew…

Something was wrong with him.

This wasn’t Yun Zhou. It was the lunatic made of black mist he had just seen inside the Mental Landscape.

Furthermore, the lunatic inside Yun Zhou’s body—or rather, this “Yun Zhou”—had asked for information the real Yun Zhou could never have known. On the night Yun Zhou had his prophetic dream, Liu Ming had seen the vision simultaneously, but it was impossible for Yun Zhou to know that.

It seemed both he and Yun Zhou had miscalculated one thing. Yun Zhou’s previous abnormality hadn’t been caused by the Anomaly in the ocean at all. The root of the problem lay within his own Mental Landscape. As early as the night the Scorching Ghost appeared, this unknown Anomaly had already existed within Yun Zhou. Back then, the entity the Scorching Ghost had shown respect to was likely this “Yun Zhou,” not the young drifter from the Seventh District.

“You’re a powerful Anomaly from the top ten sequences, so why are you so obsessed with haunting a student and living in his body? Do you not have a body of your own?”

Liu Ming’s voice was laced with disdain. If the opponent could shatter Yun Zhou’s Mental Barrier with just a sliver of mental energy, his true form was undoubtedly one of the Kings of Anomalies within the top ten sequences who were prophesied to be waking up. Chasing after a loser like Yun Zhou every day… it was honestly beneath them.

He didn’t say it directly, but the Anomaly was no fool and naturally caught the contempt in Liu Ming’s tone.

However, “Yun Zhou” didn’t seem to care. “No matter which version of you it is, you always have that same insufferable look. It makes me want to stab you to death.”

Liu Ming laughed out of sheer irritation. “Even if you are Y001, right now you’re just a fragment of mental energy. I have a hundred ways to drag you down into this sea with me.”

Behind his silver-rimmed glasses, the youth’s blood-red eyes narrowed. “So, do you want to try? You’ve hijacked someone else’s body, so you clearly have things to do. Dying before you’ve even started wouldn’t be a very profitable trade for you, would it?”

The mocking grin on “Yun Zhou’s” face vanished instantly. Once the golden eyes changed masters, they radiated a coldness and arrogance capable of freezing everything in sight. “…Human, are you threatening me?”

Liu Ming shook his head. His hand, hidden behind his back, gripped the railing of the observation deck tightly to keep himself from showing how weak he felt from mental overexertion. Despite his poor condition, his tongue remained sharp. “It’s just that you’ve made yourself so easy to threaten.”

“Yun Zhou” stared at him fixedly. Just as the atmosphere threatened to solidify under his gaze, he suddenly broke into a smile. “How strange. You actually seem to care whether he lives or dies. Why is that?”

Liu Ming remained calm. “This guy is the captain personally assigned to me by the Black Swan Council Chairman. If something happens to him, it would be difficult for both me and the Liu Family to give an account.”

His words were utterly cold, every syllable dripping with the calculated pragmatism of the Liu Family. It was enough to make “Yun Zhou” feel a flicker of pity for the little wolf whose body he was inhabiting.

“…You Liu Family people really are the same every single time. Truly disgusting.”

“Yun Zhou” sighed. The annoying, smug grin on his face didn’t fade, but a terrifying killing intent erupted from him in an instant.

That killing intent was composed of mental energy, instantly snapping the silver-blue threads binding him. Under the force of that horrific mental shock, Liu Ming frowned imperceptibly, forcing himself to swallow the metallic taste of blood rising in his throat.

He had always hated these difficult, self-centered types, especially when the person across from him possessed absolute violence.

How loathsome. He hated the feeling of being controlled by others more than anything.

But fortunately… he had finished weaving his threads much earlier.

“Clan Head! A powerful Anomaly signature has been detected! It’s right there on the observation deck!”

A flurry of urgent footsteps echoed through the quiet shrine. Soon, Hozuki’s shout rang out from the other side of the grounds.

“Understood.”

Izayoi Ame replied with only a single word, but that one word was enough to make the Anomaly inside Yun Zhou’s body change expression drastically.

“You notified Izayoi Ame beforehand?”

“Yun Zhou” stared at the confident Liu Ming in disbelief. “How did you know something would happen here? Could it be that you also—no, that shouldn’t be possible. The dream wasn’t that detailed…”

The Anomaly’s emotions suddenly became agitated, but it quickly let out a breath of relief. “It’s because of that strange mental ability of your Liu Family, isn’t it?”

Its eyes were cold as it spoke, so cold that Liu Ming felt, for a fleeting second, that this was the angriest the creature had been since its appearance.

However, he felt no obligation to accept the other’s anger. Liu Ming sighed, looking like a Tree Tower Academy teacher watching a disobedient child ask a stupid question. He looked down at the Anomaly with a mocking gaze. “And what if it is?”

Izayoi Ame’s footsteps were drawing closer. Liu Ming’s mental power even helped him sense two other familiar presences—Ying Huo and Du Shui.

The Anomaly grew even more furious upon hearing this. “I will absolutely not fall into your hands!” Its expression shifted, clearly torn by some hesitation, until Du Shui’s shadow became visible from the observation deck. Only then did it make up its mind.

“I will be watching you constantly, and I will kill you all at the perfect moment.”

The Anomaly giggled and laughed, sounding so mentally fractured it was hard to listen to. It shot Liu Ming a vicious glare. “When that time comes, you will be the first one whose blood stains this place.”

Liu Ming wanted to offer a few more biting remarks, but the opponent fled faster than he had imagined. That wisp of anomalous mental energy vanished from Yun Zhou’s body in an instant. The black color on the wolf ears and tail dissipated rapidly, as if it had never been there at all.

The arrogance and killing intent in those golden eyes faded, replaced by the blank confusion of the real Yun Zhou wondering, “What just happened?”

Liu Ming crossed his arms, leaning against the railing for support. Staying perfectly in character, he grumbled, “As expected of a monster Sentinel. Still awake after all that… truly gifted.”

“Yun Zhou! Liu Ming! I brought District Chief Izayoi! You guys—”

Du Shui rushed over, moving so fast she had to grab the observation deck’s railing to stop herself. Ying Huo followed close behind her.

Izayoi Ame had just appeared at the entrance of the shrine. Across the long corridor, he was looking toward them with an indifferent gaze.

Liu Ming blinked. He suddenly realized that Izayoi Ame was still quite a distance away… perhaps the threat that had made that thing willing to disappear wasn’t Izayoi Ame… but Du Shui and Ying Huo.

…How could that be?

“It’s nothing major. You should let our Lord Savior explain the details to you himself.”

Liu Ming shrugged, wanting to move to a quiet place to organize his thoughts. After all, things were bound to get noisy once the main group gathered.

He had only taken one tentative step when the Savior, who was currently the focus of everyone’s attention, seemed to suddenly snap back to his senses. His watery eyes scanned the area, and the moment he saw Liu Ming, he lunged. “Liu Ming!!!”

Yun Zhou practically flew through the air, grabbing Liu Ming’s shoulders and slamming into him with a full hug. “I didn’t realize you were actually a good person! I would have really died just now if it wasn’t for you! That guy was too terrifying! How can someone just take over a body like that? Aaaaah!”

“You…” Liu Ming struggled to maintain his outward composure. He pushed hard against Yun Zhou’s shoulders, trying to shove away this lunatic who was a few centimeters taller than him. Unfortunately, Yun Zhou’s strength was immense; as a Guide, Liu Ming stood no chance.

Du Shui and Ying Huo exchanged a look and couldn’t help but laugh.

Liu Ming shot them a fierce glare.

“You’re so amazing! You actually managed to deal with him for so long! I thought I was going to disappear, wahhh—”

Yun Zhou was completely oblivious to the trouble he was causing Liu Ming. He even released his Spiritual Body. The massive grey wolf circled Liu Ming, its tail wagging so hard it looked like a domesticated relative of the wolf.

Liu Ming’s body went stiff. Reaching his limit, he shouted, “Keep your wolf away from me!”

He dodged the grey wolf’s friendly advances, jumping back several steps to put distance between himself and Yun Zhou.

With teary eyes, Yun Zhou looked up. He glanced heart-brokenly at the grey wolf, which had become quite dejected after its friendly gesture was rejected, and patted his Spiritual Body to comfort it. “Liu Ming! You can’t be like that! Little Grey just wants to be close to you!”

Liu Ming hid his trembling fingertips behind his back. He said coldly, “I hate wolves!”

His own Spiritual Body, a pit viper, had already retreated into his Mental Landscape in terror. He couldn’t control the trembling of his body or the fear surging in his heart…

Damn this instinctual bloodline reaction!